Monday, October 11, 2010

My husband got this in an email and forwarded it to me. I read it after complaining about something not worth complaining about and was immediately convicted of focusing on the unimportant. Thought I would share.

You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California .In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life?And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity..We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life..No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems:If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no major purchases.Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.Painful moments, TRUST GOD.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

I'm making time today to blog for an announcement...I'm in school taking 10 hours working towards my PTA degree and having to make all A's.I started working part-time at an outpatient Physical Therapy clinic.Which means...I have LIMITED time to do anything now...Which means photography is taking a third row seat, along with watching tv.I'm more than excited about this change and thankful Jesus has timed everything perfectly and guided me in this direction through open doors and the desires he's placed in my heart. I love photography and hope to continue to capture awesome people and events, but honestly, I don't miss the time behind the computer. I went a week without opening my mac and it was glorious! I LOVE doing what I'm doing now--no computer or desk involved;). I love learning and working where I can meet new people every day and develop relationships with them. So, I will probably not be taking any clients because they would most likely not get their photos back until Christmas or Spring break next year..;) Feel free to email me if you happen to want just a few pictures done because I could probably handle that. I hope to pick it back up a little once this semester is over and my workload is slightly lighter. I'm also going to offer a very discounted session for people who want to book a session between now and Dec. 31 for this coming up spring/summer.

So, with that said, I did make time this weekend to finish a project that's loooong overdue...

It's almost been a year, and I've finally gotten around to redoing the rocking chair Jack gave me for Christmas. I had so many color/fabric combo ideas and just couldn't make a decision. I was going to go for a neutral-white look, but decided to spice it up with some color;) The chair needed lots of work and I honestly had no idea what I was doing...as you will see...

This is the chair before..

After some paint...

This was the hard part..what and how to cover the spring with...

I laid down a towel for some rigidness and three layers of batting...

I had alot of imperfections that needed hiding on this chair. So for to hide the ones on the front I turned the fabric wrong side and attached so that when I flipped it over the patterned side showed and looked seamless with the chair.

I couldn't get away with doing this on the back:(

So I had to think of a way to hide the staples...BRAIDS! This was really the only thing I could think to do. I had an excess of fabric on the edges of the back, so I cut strips from it and braided them across the back and glued the in place hiding the staples.

For the back cushion I just covered a board with batting and covered with fabric.

The sides had small wooden poles hammered into them. I'm assuming the helped secure the fabric that was previously there. I took those out and painted them and then nailed them over my fabric. I cut the excess and folded the ends under and glued them to the chair.

And the finished project...

She still needs some touching up with paint, but I like her.

I'm really surprised I had time to do this. I had to make myself complete this as it was wasting space in our place because it was unusable. Feel free to come by anytime and try her out;)

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

I had the best time photographing Peter and Parker. They needed some updated pictures and I was more than flattered she asked me. Parker and I met our freshman year at Clemson. I was immediately drawn to her personality and awesome style. She may not remember this, but Parker was sitting with me the night at FCA where I accepted Christ. I remember smiling at her as I got out of my seat and scooted by her. I'm pretty sure I may never forget her because that moment will forever be ingrained in my mind.Anyways, like I said, Parker has awesome style and she brought it for the shoot...